Skip to main content

Model-Based Testing of Railway Interlocking Systems

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Leveraging Applications of Formal Methods, Verification and Validation. Application Areas (ISoLA 2024)

Abstract

The development of railways applications must be supported by rigorous methodologies and trusted tools, able to cover the whole development process, from system design to its verification and validation. This paper describes a tool supported model-based methodology for testing railway Interlocking systems (IXL). The testing process starts with the specification of abstract test cases, that are independent of a specific railway plant, in a Controlled Natural Language (CNL). The abstract test cases are then specialized to specific railway plants and executed on simulated plants. The methodology also allows for the automated generation of test cases to complement manual test case specifications by the experts. The overall approach is supported by the tool TOSCA that allows to edit, execute, and report on the results of the tests. The approach is currently used by experts for testing IXL systems in the Italian railways.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    https://sysml.org/.

  2. 2.

    https://www.qa-systems.com/tools/cantata/.

  3. 3.

    https://gate.ac.uk.

  4. 4.

    https://www.ertms.net.

  5. 5.

    See https://cucumber.io.

References

  1. CENELEC - EN 50128 Railway applications - Communication, signalling and processing systems - Software for railway control and protection systems (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Amendola, A., et al.: A model-based approach to the design, verification and deployment of railway interlocking system. In: ISoLA (3). Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 12478, pp. 240–254. Springer (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61467-6_16

  3. Arenella, A., et al.: Model-driven design and validation of CBI applications. In: Proceedings of the World Congress on Railways Research, pp. 702–705 (2022)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Cimatti, A., Roveri, M., Susi, A., Tonetta, S.: Formalizing requirements with object models and temporal constraints. Softw. Syst. Model. 10(2), 147–160 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Ferrari, A., et al.: Detecting requirements defects with NLP patterns: an industrial experience in the railway domain. Empir. Softw. Eng. 23(6), 3684–3733 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Fischer, T., Dghyam, D.: Formal model validation through acceptance tests. In: Collart-Dutilleul, S., Lecomte, T., Romanovsky, A. (eds.) Reliability, Safety, and Security of Railway Systems. Modelling, Analysis, Verification, and Certification, pp. 159–169. Springer International Publishing, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18744-6_10

  7. Fraser, G., Wotawa, F., Ammann, P.E.: Testing with model checkers: a survey. Softw. Test. Verification Reliab. 19(3), 215–261 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Griggio, A., Jonáš, M.: Kratos2: An SMT-based model checker for imperative programs. In: International Conference on Computer Aided Verification, pp. 423–436. Springer (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37709-9_20

  9. Haxthausen, A.E., Fantechi, A., Gori, G., Mikkelsen, Ó.K., Petersen, S.A.: Automated compositional verification of interlocking systems. In: Milius, B., Collart-Dutilleul, S., Lecomte, T. (eds.) Reliability, Safety, and Security of Railway Systems. Modelling, Analysis, Verification, and Certification, pp. 146–164. Springer Nature Switzerland, Cham (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43366-5_9

  10. Haxthausen, A.E., Peleska, J., Pinger, R.: Applied bounded model checking for interlocking system designs. In: Counsell, S., Núñez, M. (eds.) Software Engineering and Formal Methods, pp. 205–220. Springer International Publishing, Cham (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05032-4_16

  11. Hayhurst, K.J., Veerhusen, D.S., Chilenski, J.J., Rierson, L.K.: A practical tutorial on modified condition/decision coverage, NASA Technical Memorandum NASA/TM-2001-210876 (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Li, J., Li, Q., Li, J.: The w-model for testing software product lines. In: ISCSCT (1), pp. 690–693. IEEE Computer Society (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Marchetto, A., Scanniello, G., Susi, A.: Combining code and requirements coverage with execution cost for test suite reduction. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. 45(4), 363–390 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. McMinn, P.: Search-based software test data generation: a survey. Softw. Test. Verification Reliab. 14(2), 105–156 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Panichella, A., Kifetew, F.M., Tonella, P.: Reformulating branch coverage as a many-objective optimization problem. In: 2015 IEEE 8th International Conference On Software Testing, Verification And Validation (ICST), pp. 1–10. IEEE (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Peleska, J.: Huang, W.l., Hübner, F.: A novel approach to HW/SW integration testing of route-based interlocking system controllers. In: Reliability, Safety, and Security of Railway Systems. Modelling, Analysis, Verification, and Certification, pp. 32–49. Springer International Publishing, Cham (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33951-1_3

  17. Vu, L.H., Haxthausen, A.E., Peleska, J.: A domain-specific language for generic interlocking models and their properties. In: Fantechi, A., Lecomte, T., Romanovsky, A. (eds.) Reliability, Safety, and Security of Railway Systems. Modelling, Analysis, Verification, and Certification, pp. 99–115. Springer International Publishing, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68499-4_7

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Angelo Susi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2025 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Cimatti, A. et al. (2025). Model-Based Testing of Railway Interlocking Systems. In: Margaria, T., Steffen, B. (eds) Leveraging Applications of Formal Methods, Verification and Validation. Application Areas. ISoLA 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 15223. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-75390-9_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-75390-9_8

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-75389-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-75390-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics